Marine Science

Athletes competing in next year's Summer Olympics here will be swimming and boating in waters so contaminated with human feces that they risk becoming violently ill and unable to compete in the games, an Associated Press investigation has found. An AP analysis of water quality revealed dangerously high levels of viruses and bacteria from human sewage in Olympic and Paralympic venues — results that alarmed international experts and dismayed competitors training in Rio, some of whom have already fallen ill with fevers, vomiting and diarrhea. It is the first independent comprehensive testing for both viruses and bacteria at the Olympic sites. Brazilian officials have assured...

Related "Marine Science" Articles

Athletes competing in next year's Summer Olympics here will be swimming and boating in waters so contaminated with human feces that they risk becoming violently ill and unable to compete in the games, an Associated Press investigation has found.
An AP...

Since hitting a record-low water level two years ago, Lake Michigan has been replenishing at an almost unprecedented rate, rising more than 3 feet since January 2013, according to government agencies.
Experts say the swift, unexpected resurgence has...

Alaskan researchers report that at least nine fin whales have been found dead in the water in recent weeks. It's rare for more than one such death to be discovered every year or so, they say, and they're exhaustively searching for a possible cause. It's...

Follow your dreams, wherever they may take you — even Hawaii!
When then-7-year-old Ashley Horvath visited Florida, she took part in a Dolphin Adventure. As any 7-year-old will attest, it was the coolest thing ever. She told her parents, Geoff and Kelly...

In a new study, a team of scientists says there's a definite link between the massive BP oil spill in 2010 and a record number of dolphin deaths along the northern Gulf of Mexico.
The scientists on Wednesday said large numbers of dead bottlenose dolphins...

It's one of the most basic biology facts we're taught in school growing up: Birds and mammals are warm-blooded, while reptiles, amphibians and fish are cold-blooded. But new research is turning this well-known knowledge on its head with the discovery of...

Usually, the Phelps Auditorium at Shedd Aquarium shows "Sea Monsters: A Prehistoric Adventure," a film said to be rendered in 4D, the technology that, apparently, turns 3D up to 11. But the audience this particular winter morning, ahead of...

Australia's iconic Great Barrier Reef may become irreparably damaged in the coming decades due to traumas caused by both nature and humans, leading scientists say.
The dire warning comes in response to plans by the Australian government to start a...

A hundred years from now, humans may remember 2014 as the year that we first learned that we may have irreversibly destabilized the great ice sheet of West Antarctica, and thus set in motion more than 10 feet of sea level rise.
Meanwhile, 2015 could be...

Sharks have been around for more than 400 million years — long before the dinosaurs — but we never get tired of them.
"They're amazing and interesting to watch," said Christian Martin, 8, of Rockville, Maryland. "They come in different...

Life is supposed to be near-impossible in perpetually dark water under a half-mile of Antarctic ice.
That's what researchers from Northern Illinois University thought when they and fellow scientists sent a camera-equipped robot to explore the water a few...

At the rate things are going, the Earth in the coming decades could cease to be a "safe operating space" for human beings. That is the conclusion of a new paper published Thursday in the journal Science by 18 researchers trying to gauge the...

Saturn's battered moon Mimas may have a thin global ocean buried miles beneath its icy surface, raising the prospect of another "life-friendly" habitat in the solar system, scientists said on Thursday.
An underground ocean is one of two...

Among the 21 winners of this year's MacArthur Fellowships, or "genius grants," are three from Illinois universities.
The awards, presented by the Chicago-based John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, give each recipient $625,000 over...

While Panama is emerging as a favored destination for vacationers looking for great beaches, tropical rain forest and rich biodiversity, its first claim to fame was the Panama Canal, which celebrates its 100th anniversary this summer.
At the center of...

Nazareth Environmental Science teacher Mrs. DePasquale has a passion for marine biology. During Nazareth's spring break in April, she shared that passion with fourteen students, freshmen through seniors, and her fellow teacher, Mr. Banasiak, when they...

Posted By College of Lake County Public Relations, Community Contributor

Learn about biodiversity, environmental gardening, beekeeping, green roofing and much more from College of Lake County instructors and other experts during Earth Week activities, April 19-26. The 2014 theme is "Celebrate Biodiversity."
Adults...

Joel Greenberg sat at his Westmont kitchen table, a bearish figure with curly gray hair mirrored by a short gray beard, in front of a stuffed passenger pigeon.
The bird looks like an oversized mourning dove, with stitches visible where the head had to be...

Imagine your favorite lake, the one where you fished with your grandpa and played with your children-its pristine waters reflecting shadow and light and kayakers paddling smoothly across from shore to shore. Now imagine that same lake as a tangle of...